 Smt. Raksha Saran Twenty Fifth President of AIWC (1958-1960

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By Smt. Sheela Satyanarayan, Asst. Secretary AIWC and Vice President, UWA

Smt. Raksha Saran was the daughter of Raizada Hans Raj also known as Mahatma Hans Raj, founder of DAV educational institutions and Hansraj College, Delhi. She was born in Lahore on 1st January 1901 and had higher education in UK. She had specialized in the field of education and social welfare.

Smt. Raksha Saran was married to Shri Raghunandan Saran, who was an Indian freedom fighter from Punjab. After Independence, he was persuaded by India's first Prime Minister, Nehru, to invest in a modern industrial venture. Ashok Motors was incorporated in 1948 as a company to assemble and manufacture Austin cars from England, and the company was named after the founder's only son, Ashok Saran. Ashok Motors was founded in 1948. The company had its headquarters in Chennai, with the manufacturing plant in Chennai.

Unfortunately, Shri Raghunandan Saran died in an air crash shortly thereafter and the company under the Madras State Government and other shareholders, finalised the deal for an investment and technology partner.Thus, Leyland Motors joined in 1954 with equity participation, changing the name of the company to Ashok Leyland. Smt. Raksha Saran, was on the board of Ashok Leyland for many years

Various Institutions Headed by Smt. Raksha Saran

Raksha Saran was the principal of Sir Ganga Ram School, Chairman of Delhi Women’s League, President, International Council of Women, Indian Chapter, Founder Trustee of Indian Council for Child Welfare Trust, the first Chairperson of the Women’s Advisory Committee of the Indian Standards Institution (now BIS), Vice President of Federation of University Women, Chairperson of National Council for Women’s Education, Government of India, Chairperson Delhi Social Welfare Board, Member of the Governing Body of Janki Devi Mahavidyalaya and Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi, Member of the Governing Body of Kalavati Saran Children’s Hospital, and she worked on the Social Welfare Rehabilitation Directorate with Smt. Rameshwari Nehru.

Raksha Saran’s Role in AIWC acquiring a home of their own

Smt. Saran’s major contribution to AIWC was collection of funds for the establishment of Sarojini Naidu House and Margaret Cousins Memorial - to make that dream a reality. The focus at that time was to establish the Margaret Cousins Library and to build a hostel for working women.

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She was the Convenor and Treasurer of the Fund Committee, and it was also her responsibility to look for an appropriate building or a plot for this. At that time Government was considering the sale of 6, Bhagwan Das Road, which was centrally located and with enough land for expansion. The deal was approved by the Standing Committee for Rs.5,50,000, on down payment of Rs 1 lakh and to pay the rest in instalments by borrowing. Smt. Raksha Saran gave her personal security of Rs 1 Lakh to the bank and Smt. Lakshmi Menon and Smt. Kamala devi Chattopadhyay signed the papers.

She had managed to collect Rs 2,27,384, (including one lakh released from the Ministry) with a big chunk of Rs 15,000 from Smt. Lakshmi Menon, West Bengal Government Rs 20,000, and a small donation of Rs 1,666 from UK. The drive to collect donations continued. Delhi Women’s League organized a Dance programme by Kamala Laxman, which was a huge success. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Prime Minister of India presided over this function, This programme fetched an amount of Rs 21,000. Her own appeal to the people in Delhi had fetched Rs 50,000 as donation, and Smt. Lakshmi Menon’s appeal had collected funds from USA of Rs 8,500, Saurashtra Government Rs 2,500, Rajasthan Government Rs 5,000 and Hyderabad State Rs 1,000.With the cooperation of all including many branches, the All India Women’s Conference finally had a home of its own

As President

On taking over as President, Smt. Raksha Saran called for a change in the mode of social welfare programmes. She emphasized that social welfare programmes will have value only if supported by economic welfare,wherein women can supplement their family income or earn a living wage.Women should receive specialized training in new and emerging careers such as commercial art, interior decoration, display art, secretarial work and business management.

Smt. Saran urged members to arrange programmes to draw out educated women from cities into villages by holding short and specific programmes in camps near the villages. AIWC also realized that there were thousands of married women who desired to take up part time jobs and also offer voluntary services to organisations. A National Committee on Women’s Education was appointed with Durgabai Deshmukh as chairperson to find out what the country’s needs were and how many women were required in certain fields for the purpose of Nation building.

Education of women was once again prominent in AIWC programmes and in 1959 an extremely useful seminar was organized on higher education of women. Young and old participated enthusiastically in the discussions. Most prominent and distinguished participants of the seminar were Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Hansa Mehta, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy and Durgabai Deshmukh.Women from all walks of life presented their point of view freely. They discussed the prejudices in Government circles to employ and promote qualified women. The need for co-education was emphasized as equipment for specialized education was expensive, as also the need to make Science subjects compulsory in all girls’ schools at the secondary stage. She made an appeal as President of AIWC, that we will

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cooperate with the Central Social Welfare Board in organising welfare activities for women and children.

Role of AIWC in International affairs

She visited Bangkok to attend the Tenth Plenary Session of the World Federation of United Nations Association (WFUNA) as an Observer on behalf of AIWC. WFUNA is characterized as non official United Nations. The Session was being held for the first time in Asia, attended by forty three countries. A large number of decisions taken were of significant importance and covered political, economic, educational and cultural fields. Two historically important decisions taken, sponsored by India, were inclusion of China in the United Nations and principles of Panch Shila -co-operation and coexistence on the basis of international relations and a very decisive and conciliatory role in adjudicating the issue of membership of East Germany into WFUNA.

Two other resolutions sponsored by India at the meeting were to start a movement for the regional exchange of fruit and forest trees to help and increase food and forest resources, and to organize Asian handicrafts exhibitions to develop cottage industries.

It was a proud moment for her as all the delegates were well acquainted with AIWC and aware of the distinguished personalities of AIWC.

Smt. Raksha Saran visited New Zealand as a delegate from AIWC to the Pan Pacific Women’s Conference. In her address there, she highlighted the projects undertaken by AIWC for the betterment of women and children. She also thanked the organizers of CORSO (Council of Organisation of Relief Services Overseas) for the wonderful gifts they had been sending to AIWC and other voluntary organizations to help the needy.

Conclusion

After a life filled with varied activities for building the newly independent nation, empowerment of women, building International Partnerships and most significantly, helping AIWC to be on sound footing with its own office and building, Smt. Raksha Saran breathed her last on 15th August 1992 at the age of 91.

Smt. Saran with Smt. Lakshmi Raghuramaiah and others

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Smt. Saran with the stalwarts of AIWC

Participation in International Conferences

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